Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows (28 page)

Axon led the way from the chamber and we
walked silently down the stairs past Raden’s gaping mother and
daughter. I wondered if Axon still held my hand to prove a point,
and really didn’t mind. He tightened his hold on my fingers
slightly before releasing them, and we went into the inner
courtyard to meet with the captains.

“
We’re going to Firen
Caves. It’ll be a rough journey, so make sure we’re prepared for
anything,” Axon told his waiting Commanders.

Commander Jashen saluted. “We’ll be ready to
leave at your orders, my Prince.”

A group of Lysus soldiers came forward when
Commander Jashen left. “Sir Prince, may we have a moment to talk
with you?”

“
Certainly,” Axon
replied.

A soldier with light green eyes touched a
hand to his heart. “Prince Axon, we request permission to go with
you to Firen Caves. We have family there and are anxious to see if
they are safe.”

Axon thought about it for a moment. “Lysus
is severely short handed and needs every soldier we can spare, but
I understand about your family. I’ll ask for volunteers in our
ranks to stay so that you can go with us.”

They expressed their gratitude and left to
the armory to help with weapons and supplies for the trip.

Axon's soldiers waited at the edge of the
city, ready to send a warning if they saw any sign of the Sathen.
The Lysus soldiers had come up with a simple way to warn the city
of attack. If dust was spotted in the distance that didn't
dissipate and continued to grow larger, a torch was set to a
shallow trough that had been dug in the dirt along the main road
and layered with the same flowers that were used at the funerals in
Lysus.

The fire would then spread rapidly up the
trough to the edge of the gate where the awaiting troops assembled.
It was clever, and Axon commended the three soldiers who had come
up with the system that had saved many lives in the past few
days.

Commander Jashen divided up the supplies
between our men and King Raden's people. I walked slowly down the
trough, making sure that the flowers overlapped so that the fire
would spread quickly when lit. I had passed several blocks when a
soft whimpering sound caught my attention. I turned warily down the
next alley and followed the sound to a dead end where two walls and
the edge of a building met.

Petrified lamak refuse, scraps of cloth, and
the broken remains of several boxes cluttered the end, all covered
in the endless sands of the surrounding desert. I was about to turn
away when the whimper sounded again. I knelt down and peered
between the boxes. A pair of yellow eyes stared back at me. I stood
and carefully cleared away the boxes to reveal one of the small
black and red foths.

The animal's long fur was slicked back like
the one I had seen in the market, but it gave no attempt to open
its mouth and try to spray me. There wasn't a collar around its
neck, and I remembered Dathien's warning about the collarless ones
still having their acid sacks intact. I backed away, wondering what
I should do. Blood caked the foth's side and it whimpered when it
took a breath.

The kindest thing would be to put it out of
its misery. I drew my sword and advanced again with caution. The
yellow eyes held mine, unflinching and bright with pain. I brought
the tip of my sword down, but it didn't move. I sighed and knelt
back by the creature.

“
Dathien would have my hide
for being a fool,” I told the foth sternly in an attempt to hide my
fear that it would spray me. “He was always worried about my
safety, and here I am, taking risks again.”

I continued talking because the sound of my
voice seemed to sooth it. I touched its fur and the foth closed its
eyes as I felt its side gently and found claws marks gashing
shallowly but painfully across the animal's ribs. I took out my
water skin and poured water on the tattered fur. The foth
hesitated, then stretched on its side as though it knew I was
trying to help.

I cleaned the creature's wounds, then tore a
strip of cloth from the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it around
the foth's middle. I tied a knot and tucked the ends of the rough
bandage underneath so they wouldn't snag on anything, but I doubted
the foth would keep the cloth on for long anyway.

I stood, then looked from the nearly empty
water skin to the poor animal at my feet. I knelt and poured some
water in my hand while wondering if the creature's saliva was also
acidic. It lapped at the water with its long green tongue, then
licked my hand in what seemed like a thank you but was really
probably just it looking for more water.

“
Sorry, but I'm out,” I
apologized. I laughed softly at my foolishness and rose. I glanced
back once at the animal who continued to watch me with its
unsettling yellow eyes, then I turned back onto the main road
wondering if I had truly risked death to tend a foth's
wounds.

Chapter 31

A soldier brought out an assortment of the
King’s finest weapons for us to choose from. I hesitated at the
sight of a spear, but the sword at my side felt familiar now and I
was loath to trade it. Though it had seemed foreign and awkward at
first, the curved blade fit well to my fighting style and I was
reluctant to let something go that had saved my life on more than
one occasion.

We were about to leave when a Duskie soldier
knelt before Axon. “Prince of Lumini, I was ordered not to tell you
what I am here to say, but because of your faith in our race, my
heart is yours anyway. You can kill me or listen as you wish.”

Axon’s eyes creased with concern. “What were
you ordered not to tell me?”

“
Prisoners, good Prince.”
The man looked up at Axon. “There are Lumini prisoners in the
castle dungeon that were brought back on the two ships that
survived the Sathen.”

Axon met my eyes, his jaw clenched. He
turned back to the man and held out a hand to help him up. “Lead
the way.”

The man's eyes widened in uncertainty, then
he grabbed Axon's hand and rose from his knees. Axon paused before
we entered the huge main doors to the Lysus castle and addressed
the soldiers around us. “Nexa and I will go with-” he waited for
the man to give his name.

“
S-Serion, Sir Prince,” the
man said.

Axon nodded. “We'll go with Serion, free our
men, and meet you back here.”

The five soldiers who had been assigned by
Commander Jashen to guard Axon looked at each other uncertainly.
Axon gave a grim smile and set a hand casually on the hilt of his
sword. “Trust me. I can take care of myself.”

A grin spread across the face of one of the
older soldiers. I recognized him as one of the men who had fought
beside Axon in Lumini. “Yes you can, Prince Axon.” He motioned for
the other soldiers to follow him and they arranged themselves
protectively around the castle door to await our return.

The guards opened the inside doors without a
word. We followed Serion through the castle, past the great dining
hall and the stairs that led down to King Raden's chambers, and to
a locked door at the end of a lonely hallway. Two Luminos guards
leaned wearily against the door; they straightened abruptly when we
rounded the corner. Serion stopped nervously in the middle of the
hall.

Axon and I stepped past him and Axon
confronted the guards.

“
Let us
through.”

A guard with a badly-healed scar across his
left cheek sneered, “We are under orders from King Raden to let no
one pass.” He met Axon’s eyes with barely concealed hatred. “Even
you.”

Axon stepped forward with a hand on his
sword, but I touched his arm. “Axon, wait. There might be a better
way to go about this.” I lowered my voice meaningfully. “Let’s go
to our old rooms and regroup.”

Axon’s brow quirked slightly at the
suggestion, but he nodded and backed away with a growl of
frustration. “The King will hear about this,” he said.

The guard nodded. “I hope so.” The younger
guard beside him looked from his scarred companion to Axon, but
dropped his eyes without protesting.

Axon and I ran up to our rooms with Serion
close behind. Axon blocked the doors with a couch and several
chairs thrown on top for good measure.

“
That ought to hold them,”
he said with a satisfied nod.

“
What are we doing here?”
Serion asked. His eyes were wide as he stared around the fine
chambers. He shifted from one foot to the other and I wondered if
he felt the same way I had when I stood on the carpets in dirty
bare feet, feeling even more bedraggled because of the beauty of
the room.

Axon studied the man for a minute, his eyes
searching. He then let out his breath slowly. “Serion, what we do
here must not be spoken of to anyone. You've broken your King's
orders to not tell us of the prisoners, and while I appreciate the
information, it also increases my hesitance to trust you.”

Axon glanced at me and I saw a touch of
humor in his eyes that vanished when he looked back at the Duskie.
“I have two options. I can either kill you now so that you don't
stab me in the back later.” He drew his sword and Serion eyed it
warily, but he didn't back away or beg, something that lifted my
opinion of him greatly. Axon frowned thoughtfully, “Or, I can take
you with us to the dungeons, assume that being an accomplice to our
actions will be enough to ensure your loyalty or at least your
silence, and let you choose whether to go with us to Firen Caves or
stay here and reap the consequences of your actions.”

Serion met Axon's eyes with humility. “Good
Prince, I swear my fealty to you and am grateful accept the
opportunity to go to the Caves. My father came from there and it’s
my duty to see that any who can survive those stone walls is given
a chance for a better life.”

Serion looked at me and bowed his head
deferentially. “And to you, My Lady, I offer my protection and my
servitude. Anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask.”

I nodded solemnly. “Thank you.”

Axon lifted his eyebrows at me and I turned
to the door to hide my embarrassment. I walked through my room and
opened the closet. A memory from our last visit followed me,
laughter and joking from Axon’s men as they fought about who would
go into the dark tunnel. I swallowed the lump that rose in my
throat and pushed through the clothes to the empty space in the
back. I worked the door free, then stepped in with Axon close
behind. He slipped his hand into mine in a gesture that was so
familiar the rush of warmth up my arm brought a smile to my face.
Serion followed whispering shocked exclamations about the
tunnel.

I led Axon down the dusty tunnel in the
opposite direction we had gone before. After several small
walkways, the floor took a steep dip and we followed it down until
the air became cold and musty and the giant bricks around us were
chilled and damp to the touch as though they hadn’t been warmed in
a very long time. Axon followed my quiet directions perfectly and
only bumped his head on a low beam when he got distracted with
voices in a room near us. We waited for the voices to pass, then
continued until the tunnel stopped entirely. Serion waited
silently, his light green eyes wide and swirled face pale.

“
Where are we?” Axon
whispered when I stopped.

“
Dead end,” I whispered
back. “There must be an exit around here somewhere.”

“
Are you sure?” he pressed.
His voice was tight and I glanced up to see him feeling the wall
despite the cobwebs. I saw then the discipline and trust traveling
for so long in the dark with only my voice to guide him must have
required. He stared blindly in the darkness and I could hear his
teeth grind together.

“
I’ll find it,” I said to
reassure him. He nodded and dropped his hands to wait. Only a
slight quiver of his fingers betrayed how badly he wanted to leave
the tunnel and darkness.

Serion and I searched the narrow passage. I
found the door, given away by cobwebs waving slightly as though
from a breath of air. I cleared them away with my hands and
followed the edge of the door to the opening mechanism. Gears
covered in decades of dust and filth led from a pulley system to
several wheels. I pulled on one, but it wouldn’t budge. Serion
tried the next one, but it barely moved; by the time the third
started to creak under my weight, I was almost as anxious to get
out of the tunnel as Axon. He heard the wheel move and put his
hands by mine.

Together, we pulled down and the wheel
turned the one next to it, which then turned the third. The gears
shifted and a puff of dust rose into the air as the door slowly
opened outward with the grating sound of stone on stone. When the
opening was just wide enough for us to get through, I put a hand on
Axon’s arm and we waited only long enough to ascertain no one was
in the hallway before we stepped out. The three of us took deep
breaths of air that was only somewhat less stale than the
walkway.

Voices sounded down the hall followed by a
hacking cough. A lifeless torch hung on the wall.

“
Do you have flint and
steel?” I asked.

Axon reached in his cloak pocket and handed
them to me without speaking. Serion held the torch while I tried to
light it. I dropped the steel once, but managed after several
strokes to get a spark on the torch. Luckily, the material was dry
and must have been treated because it flared up like a living
thing. Axon took the torch from Serion with a look of relief on his
face as though it was the sun itself. He slipped the flint and
steel back into his cloak, then led the way down the cold
hallway.

Muttering voices grew louder when we rounded
a corner and came upon rows of barred cells. The spaces closest to
us were empty, but a stench so powerful it made my eyes water
floated from them. When I blinked, a memory of the cage on the ship
swept through my mind with such force my blood ran cold. It took
several breaths for me to collect myself enough to pretend nothing
was wrong. I could make out the remains of a person in the third
cell to our right and found myself staring at the dark shapes. Axon
took my hand and hurried me past before I saw anything else.